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September 9 may turn out to be lucky for Apple again.
Buzzfeed on Friday reported Apple will hold its next product launch the week of September 7, with September 9 being the most likely date. The timing would align with Apple’s strategies from previous years — including the iPhone 6 last year, which also was announced on that day. The iPhone 6 and its larger sibling, the 6 Plus, have become Apple’s best-selling devices ever and have made Apple the most profitable public company in the world.
The site said along with new iPhones, Apple will use the event to talk up its newest iPads and its Apple TV revamp. That would mark a break from Apple’s traditional strategy of holding separate events for its smartphones and tablets. Typically, the iPhone is announced in September and is followed by the iPad in October. Lumping them together could indicate Apple doesn’t have big changes in store for the devices — though market watchers have been waiting for the company to introduce a new 12.9-inch “iPad Pro.” Buzzfeed said the iPad Pro is a wildcard for the September event.
Apple declined to comment.
See also
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- Apple reportedly preps biggest iPhone order ever for new devices
- Apple’s iPhone sales, weak forecast rock investor confidence
- The iPhone 6S rumor roundup
More than two-thirds of Apple’s revenue now comes from the iPhone, making it vital for Apple to keep introducing devices consumers desire. While it continues to sell millions of phones, the overall mobile market has slowed, raising worries that not even Apple is immune to the lackluster demand. At the same time, Apple has to find a way to get buyers interested in tablets again. Its quarterly iPad sales have declined year over year for the past six periods in a row. A bigger iPad, which would appeal to business users, could be a way to do that.
This year’s iPhone launch is the “S” cycle, which means the devices likely won’t feature new hardware designs but instead could include other tweaks, like how Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, was added to the iPhone 4S. The company is expected to add its ForceTouch technology to the new devices, allowing the iPhones to differentiate between hard and light taps on the display. Other tweaks could include a faster processor and camera, as well as more color options.
Apple also is expected to reveal a new Apple TV box that it potentially will launch alongside an Internet-delivered television service. The company was believed to be readying the products for its annual developers conference in June, but they instead were pushed back. Apple couldn’t broker deals with TV programmers to stock the new service with channels in time, according to reports.
Apple’s streaming-video box has gone three years without a refresh to a new generation, all while Internet-delivered TV has grown bigger and more accessible than ever. In that span of time, Apple has thrown plenty of splashy events, and each one has come and gone without Apple TV getting serious time in the spotlight.
Updated at 3:25 p.m. PT with Apple declining to comment.
